


Not-So Spooky Halloween Studies

by dearzoemurphy



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode: s02e06 Epidemiology, F/F, F/M, Ficlet Collection, Gen, Halloween, Mid-Canon, Mid-season 5, mid-season 6, pairings characters and tags will be added as i go
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:35:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27311263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dearzoemurphy/pseuds/dearzoemurphy
Summary: A collection of loosly Halloween-themed ficlets.
Relationships: Annie Edison & Britta Perry, Annie Edison/Abed Nadir, Britta Perry/Jeff Winger, Frankie Dart/Britta Perry
Comments: 12
Kudos: 29





	1. Homemade Horror Movies and You

**Author's Note:**

> hello and happy Halloween!! these ficlets are like my song fics and not connected to one another in any way, but share a common Halloween-y theme! the descriptions and context for each will be in the chapter summaries. I hope you all are having a good day, and without further ado, hope you enjoy! <3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Britta won't admit that Abed's latest film is too scary for her, so Frankie swoops in to help. Set mid-season 6.

“Britta? Are you okay?”

Frankie had looked at the woman sitting next to her on apartment 303’s daybed to see her curled into a ball with her head buried in her hands. Abed turned towards them from where he was seated on the couch and furrowed his brow in concern.

“Is the movie too scary for you, Britta?” he asked, gesturing to the TV. He was showing the group his latest project: a film about a group of students that get trapped in their community college during a zombie outbreak.

“No, no, I’m fine. It’s not too scary, I was just…rubbing my head,” Britta said weakly. She raised her head and gave a shaky smile as if to prove a point, but buried it in her hands again as soon as she caught a glimpse of zombie Neil biting Garrett.

“Are you sure? You don’t have to keep watching it, we can go do something else,” Frankie offered.

“Britta’s not big on horror movies. You should have seen her last year when Abed made us all watch Chucky,” Jeff chimed in.

“Dolls aren’t supposed to come alive and murder people like that, Jeff! It’s unnatural!” Britta countered, looking up long enough to glare at him from across the room.

“Congratulations, you discovered the point of horror movies,” he said dryly. Britta looked up again to stick her tongue out at him, Jeff sticking his tongue out in return.

“Okay, well, are you sure that you don’t want to go somewhere else, Britta? I’d be happy to accompany you so that you’re not alone,” Frankie offered again.

Britta sighed, giving one last look to the TV, where zombie Vicki was currently ripping off one of zombie Leonard’s limbs with surprisingly realistic special effects.

“Yeah. I need a drink, anyway, let’s go to the kitchen.”

With that, she slid off of the daybed and practically made a run for the kitchen, red solo cup in hand. Frankie chuckled to herself as she joined the blonde, moving at a much more leisurely pace.

“You know, I’m not too keen on horror movies myself,” she said once she reached the kitchen, sliding onto one of the tall chairs beside the counter.

“That doesn’t surprise me. You don’t seem to be too keen on movies of any kind,” Britta said. She had gone straight for the vodka, pouring a generous amount into her cup.

Frankie considered her statement for a moment, then nodded. “I suppose you’re right. But horror movies are my least favorite. I don’t see any point in choosing to scare yourself.”

Britta smirked as she came around the counter, taking a seat next to Frankie. “Me neither,” she said, pausing for a moment to take a swig of vodka, “I had an ex that was really into horror stuff. Worked as a special effects artist or something.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah. They’d always show me whatever stuff they’d been working on, and it was horrifying. Bloody wounds and bruises and cuts…I hated it. But I liked them enough to watch the movies that they had worked on with them. Mostly with my eyes closed. But I had the spirit!” Britta elaborated.

“They must have been pretty special, then, for you to put yourself through that,” Frankie remarked.

Britta smirked again, leaning over to nudge the brunette’s shoulder with the top of her head. “Sure. But someone really special never would have made me feel like I had to in the first place.”

Frankie tried to smirk back, but couldn’t help an uncontrollable grin from spreading across her face. “Oh, I wonder, who could possibly be that special?” she asked innocently.

Britta laughed and shook her head. “I wonder.”

“Hey, can you guys keep it down in there? Some of us are still trying to watch the movie,” Jeff called from the living room.

“I know that you’re only still watching because your shirtless scene is coming up, Winger,” Britta called back. Frankie couldn’t help but laugh, a few assorted chuckles joining her from the other side of the apartment.

“That’s not it! I just appreciate Abed’s artistry!”

“Thank you,” Abed said quietly, likely accentuated with finger guns, Frankie thought.

“Specifically the artistry of how he filmed your abs, I’m sure,” Britta said with an eye roll directed at Frankie.

“... maybe he filmed my abs in a very artistic way. But that’s beside the point!” Jeff mumbled back.

Britta shook her head again, leaning in closer to Frankie.

“What are we gonna do with them?”

Frankie laughed and leaned in as well, bringing her shoulder close enough that Britta’s head was now resting on it.

“I have no idea, Britta. None whatsoever.”


	2. Intro to Accidentally Matching Costumes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Annie and Abed discover that they accidentally chose matching costumes for the study group's Halloween party. Set mid-season 5.

Annie tucked the last bobby pin into the bun on the left side of her head and smiled at herself in the mirror. She had just long enough hair for the perfect Princess Leia buns, having followed a tutorial that she found on YouTube to make sure that they would be perfect.

She had wanted to dress up as Leia since she was little and watched Star Wars for the first time, but she’d never gotten around to it. So this year, for the study group’s annual party, she’d decided to go all out. She got a long white skirt and matching turtleneck from the thrift store, made a silver belt in the shape of Leia’s to cover up the seam, and even ordered a blaster online. Annie felt as beautiful as she had hoped she would, taking one last look at herself in the mirror before stepping out of her room into her and Abed’s shared living space.

“Hey, Abed! Do you like my-”

“We’re matching.”

Annie looked up, bewildered to see Abed standing before her in full Han Solo gear. He had what she could only assume was a screen accurate vest, holster, and boots, filling in with his own familiar blue pants and cream shirt.

“Oh…wow. I had no idea-”

“I didn’t, either.”

They stood perfectly still for a moment, each sizing the other up.

“You look nice,” Abed said, finally breaking the silence.

“So do you,” Annie replied, clutching her hands together in front of her and blushing the slightest bit. She always thought that he looked nice, but right now, he looked like he had during their sophomore year paintball game. Though he looked even better now than he had then; his shirt was a little tighter, his hair was a little messier, and his smile was warmer and directed only at Annie.

“You know…this will only be weird if we make it weird.”

“Weird? Who said anything about us accidentally dressing up as both halves of one of the best fictional couples of all time being weird?” Annie said with an over-the-top and forced laugh.

Abed gave her a tight lipped smile. “You’re right. Anyway…” he flipped over his wrist to check his digital watch, “shall we? We’re already running a bit late.”

Annie nodded eagerly, trying not to get too flustered when her roommate offered her his bent arm. “We shall.”

\---

“Aw, how cute! You guys make the perfect Han and Leia,” Shirley cooed the moment that Annie and Abed stepped into the study room. She seemed to be dressed as Elsa from Frozen, but Annie didn’t want to make any assumptions after her last few Halloween faux passes.

Britta had been in charge of decorating - she had been in charge of decorating most things since Shirley’s impromptu wedding - and had positively decked out the place. Giant fake spider webs were hung up in every corner of the room, hyper realistic bats and cutesy ghosts hung from the ceiling, and each table was covered with a deep purple tablecloth and adorned with giant cauldrons to hold food and drink. Orange and black tulle was artfully tucked around said cauldrons, with tiny skeletons hidden in every nook and cranny completing her decorative masterpiece.

“I knew we could count on you guys to win the best couples’ costume award,” Jeff said dryly, glaring over at Britta. He was seemingly dressed as a Fall Out Boy reject, with ripped up black jeans, a band shirt that had been cut into a tank top, and a copious amount of eyeliner.

Britta, who was wearing a black collared shirt and long brown dress with her hair in a low bun, rolled her eyes. “How was I supposed to know that when you said ‘American goth’ that you didn’t mean the people in that famous painting?”

Annie laughed as the couple glared at one another. “That’s okay, you guys still get the award. Since, you know…we’re not actually a couple.”

Jeff looked away from his girlfriend to size up Annie and Abed again. “Might as well be.”

Annie felt her face flush, darting her gaze over to Abed for a moment before looking down at the ground.

“Well, anyway…”

Before she could say anything else, Abed left her side to go talk to Chang (who was dressed in a Batman costume that he had obviously made himself) and Shirley swooped in to take his place.

“No matter what, you two look very cute tonight,” Shirley said, patting Annie on the shoulder.

The brunette smiled weakly. “Thanks, Shirley.”

\---

“Hey, Annie? Are you doing okay?”

Annie looked up to see Britta standing beside her, an apparent look of concern on her face. For the past few minutes, Annie had been standing by herself in the corner, slowly sipping from a glass of punch.

“Oh, yeah, I’m fine! Just really drained, for some reason,” she replied.

Britta gave her a curious look, moving to lean back against the bookcase that they were standing next to. “Okay. You just seemed kinda sad, that’s all.”

Annie shrugged. “I’m not sad. I just…Abed and I didn’t mean to match costumes. And I think we both feel weird about it even though we agreed not to be weird about it. I mean, he hasn’t talked to me at all since we got here,” she spilled, deciding that Britta was the best possible confidante at this particular moment in time. She gazed across the room to where the others were egging Chang on as he bobbed for apples, the Dean (dressed as Cher from the 1974 Met Gala, and pulling it off surprisingly well) being the only one to express any sort of disgust at the events unfolding in front of him.

“I mean, you guys live together. He probably just wants to spend time with the others,” Britta rationalized.

“Yeah, I’m sure! I don’t know, I just…I thought it was kind of cool that we accidentally matched. And I hope that he’s not avoiding me because of it.”

“I’m sure it doesn’t help that he looks like he did during that one game of paintball.”

Annie’s gaze darted to the ground. “I don’t see how that’s relevant.”

“Oh, come on, you were clearly more smitten than usual around him during that game. And I don’t blame you,” Britta said, looking off in the direction of the rest of the group. Annie gave her a slightly exasperated look, causing Britta to laugh.

“Don’t worry, I’m not trying to steal him from you. I’m…surprisingly happy with my current boyfriend,” she said, smiling fondly at the half-heartedly emo Jeff.

Annie smiled at the blonde’s warm expression. “I’m glad that’s still working out.”

Britta turned back to Annie, directing her fond gaze towards the other woman. “I’m glad, too. You know, neither of us really thought that we’d be happy with this. We’re not ones for commitment. But after circling around each other for so long…we figured there was no reason not to give it a shot,” she said, pausing to glance at Abed, “As it turns out, dating your best friend is pretty great.”

Annie blushed, picking up on the clear implications of Britta’s statement. “Oh?”

“Yeah. I’m not telling you how you feel or what you should do, but it seems like there’s always been a sort of spark between you and Abed. This might be the perfect time to do something about it.”

Annie kept looking down at her feet. “How did you tell Jeff how you felt?”

“Funny you ask, he came to me first. He said that he didn’t want to keep ignoring our chemistry and wanted to see if we could try dating for real. I thought he was just fucking with me, so I agreed. And here we are, three months later,” Britta answered.

“Did anything change? Like, about your friendship?”

Britta shrugged. “Not really. We just make out and sleep together a little more than we used to,” she said casually, “We still just hang out and make fun of each other and support each other. I don’t know about you, but I think it’s a pretty good basis for a relationship. It’s definitely the healthiest one I’ve ever been in.”

Annie nodded. “That’s great. I’m really happy for you guys.”

“Thanks, Annie. I know that you could have the same kind of happiness, if you want it,” Britta said, giving her a knowing smile and a wink before standing up straight again and striding across the room to join the group.

Annie was left alone in the corner, staring after Britta with an open mouth.

 _“Has there really always been a spark between me and Abed?”_ she thought, _“I mean…I guess that there’s been something there since he first stayed in the psychology experiment for me. We’ve always just been friends and nothing more! …except during that paintball game. Maybe his costume just reminded me of that. Maybe I don’t-”_

“Hey, Annie? Would you like to come on a walk with me?”

She snapped out of her trance and looked up to see Abed gazing at her and offering her his right hand. After a moment of staring at him in disbelief, she took his hand and gently laced her fingers with his. She felt her heart starting to beat a little bit faster as Abed led her out of the study room, taking an immediate right.

"Did Britta send you over here?" she asked in a small voice.

“She suggested that I come check on you," he replied simply. There was a moment of silence before he elaborated.

I wasn’t ignoring you tonight on purpose. I thought that you might just want a little space. Pun intended."

“Of course, I know that! That’s…sweet, Abed. I didn’t mean to be so awkward about matching costumes. It’s not a big deal at all,” Annie replied.

Abed gave her a sideways smile. “It’s alright. Especially since the costume really is beautiful on you.”

Annie’s heart sped up a little more. “Oh, really?”

“Yes, really.”

Annie looked up in the direction that they were walking, noticing that they were approaching a wall of bookshelves. “Where are we going, Abed?”

“Well, last time we were here, Leia,” he replied, switching into his Han Solo impression, “you might remember that we shared something.”

She gave him a look of confusion as he led her into the corner of the library, but realization quickly dawned on her.

“That we did, Han.”

Abed broke character for a moment to smile fondly at her. “It was pretty amazing. But I know that neither of us wanted it to ever happen again,” he said, back to his suave tone.

Annie’s face fell a little as she nodded sadly. “Right. And it never did.”

“I think I figured out why.”

“What?”

“Leia, I didn’t do this quite right the first time,” Abed said, still with his best Han impression.

“Oh? What did you do wrong, Han?” Annie asked in a voice that was not quite Leia’s, but not quite her own.

Abed smiled warmly, now fully breaking out of the Han character. “I didn’t do it as myself,” he said.

Annie thought that her jaw nearly hit the floor, but quickly collected herself enough to respond.

“Are you saying that you want to try again?”

“I am.”

With that, Abed expertly wrapped one arm around Annie’s waist and pulled her in close enough that their lips met with no effort at all. Her hands quickly flew up to his face, kissing him back with a fair amount of force. She thought that this was even better than the first kiss that they had shared. It felt more real, which made perfect sense. Abed was Abed. Annie was Annie. And here they were, kissing in the library.

Annie wanted nothing more than to try this again over and over for as long as she possibly could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as always, please leave any thoughts/opinions/etc. in the comments!! I'll proabably try to upload one more of these before Halloween is over. I hope you all have a wonderful evening and stay safe!! <3


	3. Post-Apocalyptic Conversations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeff and Britta decide what to do the night of Greendale's zombie outbreak after having their memories wiped of the event. Set at the end of s02e06 Epidemiology.

“Hey, so…do you want to go back to my place?” Jeff asked in a low voice, moving close enough to Britta’s ear that she could feel his breath on her neck.

She sighed. “I don’t know, I’m not really feeling like doing anything tonight.”

“We don’t have to. We could make popcorn, put on a horror movie…you could curl up next to me when you got too scared to keep watching,” Jeff said suggestively, a sly smirk tugging up the corners of his mouth.

Britta scoffed, swatting him on the arm with her dinosaur paw. “In your dreams, Winger.”

“Which part, coming back to my place to watch a movie or curling into my side when you get scared?”

“Obviously the second part. I would watch a horror movie with you, but I wouldn’t fall victim to the feminine stereotype of needing the help of a strong man to get through scary media,” Britta said pointedly.

Jeff looked down at the table, moving to lace one of his hands with Britta’s without a second thought. “We could watch something that’s not scary,” he relented.

“Are you really that desperate to get me back to your apartment? What game are you playing?” Britta asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

“I don’t know, it’s been a weird day. And I’d like some company,” Jeff replied, giving her hand a gentle squeeze.

Britta considered her options for a moment. “What about the Charlie Brown special? The one with the pumpkin?”

Jeff gave a begrudging smile. “Fine. For the record, it’s not just any old pumpkin. It’s the great pumpkin,” he clarified.

“Keep this up and I’m going home.”

“Whatever. Shall we get out of here?” he asked, glancing around the study room to see who was still around.

Britta gave another deep sigh. “We shall.”

With that, Jeff slid off of the table, still holding on tight to Britta’s hand. She slid off with him and let him lead her towards the library’s front doors. Usually, she would have pulled her hand away and insisted on leaving separately. But something about that night made her not care about who may be perceiving their rare display of physical affection or the fact that they were walking out together and would be getting into the same car. She didn’t care, because she had a boyfriend who liked her enough to watch the Charlie Brown Halloween special with her. And that was too special for her to care about much else.

**Author's Note:**

> as always, please leave any thoughts/opinions/etc. down below!! I hope that you all enjoyed this little series of Halloween-y snapshots and had a great Halloween yourselves!! <3


End file.
